3 Steps: how to become Italian

Spending your vacation at a luxury holiday villa with a private pool will not hide where you come from. Usually, we can distinguish different nationalities from miles away and so can our hosts when we are on our Mediterranean family vacation.

It doesn’t matter how often we have been there already, being German, British, Scandinavian, Latin or Asian will be like written on our forehead in bold letters. Why is it always there that our own culture reveals our origin?

Well, being abroad means being alien to the customs around us and therefore we fall back onto territory we are familiar with aka our own.

So now what? Well, there are three easy steps that will bring you closer to looking native, no matter where your luxury villa to rent is located.

Learn the right Lingo in three different ways!

Our beautiful LA VILLA in Umbria sitting right in the heart of Bella Italia

free language learning

Evidently, if you want to look like a native you have to learn the language of the country you are travelling to. Good news for all the Italian lovers: this language belongs to the Romance languages and has a fairly logical grammar system with some exceptions. Once you know this system the rest is pretty easy. This lingo is so melodic that it just sounds great even with a limited vocabulary.

Useful apps to learn some basic words and phrases are the easiest way to start. We recommend Duolingo, which has a game character and Memrise, where you can listen to natives pronouncing short sentences and words. The basic version of these apps is free so what are you waiting for? Download them onto your phone and start practising your Italian!

Another great way to start learning a new language are podcasts. We recommend the Coffee Break Series , which offers free podcasts on all available audio platforms and will build up your vocabulary step by step. Head to your preferred streaming platform and download some basic “Ciao, come stai?”-like sentences for your next coffee break.

Your body talks

Very good news for all that are not so fond of language learning: especially the Italian language is very body language based. It is often said that Italians speak with their hands.

We will show you the most important of all gestures to learn before travelling to our beautiful luxury villa with a private pool hidden in the Umbrian hills.

Pinched Fingers:

Stretch your fingers and gather them in order to form a pinecone, then move your hand up and down.

Read this article about some more gestures to appear Italian and start talking with your hands no words needed.

Fashion vocabulary

Now, if you have learnt to talk like an Italian, use your hands like them, but do not look the part, you’ll soon be discovered as foreigner.

No wonder many of the great luxury fashion brands come from Italy as fashion is embedded into the Italian culture and a part of their invisible language. It is said that every man there has at least one custom made suit at home, no matter how poor.

Here are some basic fashion tips that will build your Italian fashion vocab from scratch:

1) Tailor not Swift

Wear what your body tells you to wear not H&M and invest in tailored clothes to show your unique self.

2) High quality over mainstream

Pimp your style with at least one high quality item from an original luxurious brand. These pieces are timeless and can often be combined with many outfits.

3) Sun Glasses with Drama Baby

Sun glasses are a must in the Mediterranean, you even have to have them in your car according to regulations. In Italy you will want to wear some dramatic ones for effect!

More styling tips needed? Then head over to the Editorialist and read what the Italian It-Girls recommended for this year.

Last but not least the most important way to become an Italian and learn all the way of this language, visible and invisible, is to travel to this country.

You have to immerse yourself into this beautiful culture with all its secrets. So book your fairytale luxury Italian holiday with us and stay at LA VILLA near Perugia.

Dip into our infinity pool, taste our own created wines from our vineyard there and indulge in Italian specialities such as handmade pasta, fresh truffles and tiramisu.

You’ll see you’ll appear Italian in no time!